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Pure accident.

A Confederate officer had dropped a set of Lee's orders in the field, and they were discovered by Union troops.

These orders revealed that Lee's divisions were widely separated, giving McClellan a chance to destroy them piecemeal.

He did not move quite fast enough to achieve this. Also a Confederate spy in the Union camp was able to get word to Lee of what had happened, and he hastily concentrated his forces.

But the result was a Union victory - and a very historic one.

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13y ago

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